End of Summer. Days 6, 7 and 8. Should We Get the Beach Bag?
Our driver met us at the port and took us to the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale where we are staying for the end of this trip. The hotel is right on the beach. As we checked in, a man brought out a big red wagon full of stuffies. Madeleine picked something that was either a hamster, a guinea pig or a beaver. Who knows. Hallie couldn’t decide between the same hamster/guinea pig/beaver and a weird looking dog with huge eyes, and somehow talked the man into giving me the dog. Good job, Hal.
It was still early—around 10:00—but one of our rooms was already ready. We left our luggage there and then spoke with the concierge to try to plan an activity for the day. I don’t know how, but planning the day ended up being the activity for the day, because by the time we figured anything out it was nearly noon. The hotel has a little seating area outside where Tzvi and the girls sat and played mini golf on a putting green. We then went back to the room to get our stuff before going out and found that our room keys weren’t working because the card reader on the door had a dead battery, so we sat waiting for security to come fix it. They were very apologetic about it.
The hotel drove us to Las Olas in one of its street-legal golf carts. I don’t know whether this is a Miami and Fort Lauderdale thing, but they have these large golf-cart-like vehicles that are registered and can actually drive on the road.
Las Olas is a shopping and dining area, and we had lunch at Earls Kitchen + Bar. It was pretty good. I ordered a bibimbap bowl that was absolutely delicious. Tzvi had a salad with a piece of grilled salmon. After lunch, we walked around and visited the Romero Britto store, which was fun. We found a small Dumbo sculpture that Tzvi really wanted to buy, but it was $350 and very tiny, so we decided it was unnecessary.
From there, we took an Uber to GoYummy, a huge Swedish candy store. They had tons of vegan options, so the girls were very excited to fill their bags with candy.
We returned to the hotel and spent some time by the pool, which was very nice.
Then we got ready for dinner at Evelyn’s, the hotel’s “Levantine” (read: Israeli) restaurant. Dinner was very good, although the service was extremely slow. We had a Jerusalem bagel, stone-fired pita and delicious hummus topped with olive oil and toasted pine nuts. Tzvi and Shir also had a French onion labneh that they really liked. We also ordered pomegranate-glazed salmon and a whole branzino, which arrived with its head still attached. Tzvi picked through and ate basically everything except for the eyeball. Gross.
We skipped dessert because the girls were going nuts and, honestly, none of the desserts looked that appealing anyway.
After dinner, we went upstairs and sat for a long time on our balcony. It was just so peaceful out there. Good day.
At 7:00 Saturday morning, we were awakened by an enormous boom. We looked outside and saw that it was thunderstorming.
“Well, this can’t last all day,” we thought.
Famous last words.
Miraculously, the storm did not wake the girls even though incredibly loud thunder seemed to go on for an hour. Eventually, everyone got up, and we made our way to breakfast. We all got the buffet, which came with one made-to-order egg dish. It was a very nice, fairly standard breakfast buffet.
And then it kept raining. It rained for pretty much the entire day. We spent a lot of time sitting outside under cover and watching the lightning, which was actually pretty cool. But the biggest saving grace was the kids club. The girls refused to use the kids club on the Disney cruise, but at the Four Seasons, they got it. They spent hours there in the morning, leaving only for the half hour lunch break that the kids club closed. We eventually ordered them some lunch, which we ate outside by the putting green, even though the adults weren’t particularly hungry, and then they went straight back to the kids club. Tzvi and I were actually able to sit and read our books. It was wonderful.
The kids club closed at 4:00, and thankfully, the rain had finally stopped by then. The girls and Tzvi went into the pool for a little while, and we all just hung out. That kids club was the best thing that could have happened to us on such a rainy day. We also ordered drinks by the pool, including the Popsicle Margarita, which had passion fruit and a whole pomegranate popsicle on top. It was a very fun drink. It was a very nice end to the day. There was a couple with a small child that kept jumping in the pool, except he didn’t seem to know how to swim and they didn’t seem to try to stop him. He just kept swallowing water and coughing. It was strange and annoying.
Eventually we went back to the room, packed, showered and waited for Shabbat to end. Once it was over, we walked down the block to Wine + Garden, a casual, homey Italian restaurant. We ordered several different pastas and pizzas, including a Margherita pizza. I had gnocchi with zucchini, Shir ordered some sort of pasta, and Madeleine got her own pasta. Tzvi also ordered a pizza with eggplant, sun dried tomato and straciatella. The food was all very good, but it just took a very long time to arrive. I kind of felt like we were inside a house, and once the waitress left to go out into the garden it was impossible to get her back.
By the end of dinner, it was around 10:00, and the girls were going nuts. Shir walked them back to the hotel while we paid the bill, and then we followed them back and went to bed.
Tomorrow we go home.
On our final morning, we hoped to squeeze in about an hour at the beach before heading home. We got dressed for the beach and went down to breakfast around 945. Today I skipped the buffet and ordered French toast. Unfortunately, the service today was extra slow. Slower than Friday’s dinner. Slower than Saturday’s dinner. The staff kept apologizing and telling us it was taking longer than expected, but after waiting at least 45 minutes, we began wondering how much beach time we would actually have left since we needed to check out by 1:00.
By 1040, Tzvi became so angry that he left without even waiting for his omelet and took Hallie down to the beach. They got there and got set up.
10:39 AM Tzvi: Did the food come?
10:39 AM Steph: Nope
10:43 AM Tzvi: The water is pretty warm there’s just a lot of seaweed. The waves are also pretty rough.
10:44 AM Tzvi: Did it come?
10:44 AM Steph: Nope!
10:44 AM Steph: I’m not even going to come down to the beach
10:51 AM Tzvi: All right, so Hallie wants to swim in the pool, and there was a giant ant crawling on me, so we’re coming back to the pool.
Our breakfast eventually arrived, but it was pretty atrocious. We met Tzvi and Hallie by the pool and hung out there for about an hour before returning to our rooms to change, finish packing and leave. It was actually a very nice hour. We tried to order the popsicle margarita again, but they said they were out of the popsicles, which seemed odd given they had just opened.
We checked out at 1:00 and headed to Sawgrass Mills, the huge mall about 25 minutes away, because it has one of the few Rainforest Cafes left in the country, and Hallie really loves that restaurant. The meal itself was not particularly memorable (is Rainforest every memorable?). Thankfully, as soon as we sat down, I asked the server to bring out the chef to discuss Hallie’s allergy. Usually, the server comes over first, then we explain the allergy, then they search for a chef, and the entire process takes forever. This time, we got ahead of it. The food still took a while, but not nearly as long as it has in the past. Madeleine was very upset that our table wasn’t near any elephants. I think this Rainforest Cafe has far fewer elephants than the one in Orlando. Orlando has a lot of elephants. We were seated next to the tigers. It was fine. Basically we spent $100 on Ubers so Hallie could get a meal at Rainforest. Can’t wait to hear what she has to say about us in therapy one day.
After lunch, we walked around the mall. I found a dress for Madeleine at Monnalisa, and Shir bought some things at Lululemon. Then it was time to Uber back to the hotel and meet our driver for the airport.
Before returning, I called the Four Seasons about the beach bag they had provided in our room. The hotel gives you a beach bag to use during your stay, but there’s a tag on it that says if you want to take it home they’ll apply a charge to your room (which was less than the cost of buying a brand new bag at the spa). Tzvi liked the bag, but kept waffling over whether he wanted to pay to take it home. He ended up not taking it, but then of course regrated it and spent most of lunch going back and forth over whether we should call and buy the bag. Eventually I just called and asked if I could still purchase one. They said of course and that they were very happy that I liked it. When we arrived, a woman brought me the beach bag inside a larger Four Seasons bag. She told me, “I know you’re going on a cruise, so I added some extra things for you.” Apparently, she didn’t realize that we had just returned from the cruise. Well, inside the bag was a very nice Four Seasons water bottle, a hat and a bunch of little things including a little sunscreen. That was very nice of them.
We reached the airport, checked in and everything went smoothly—until, obviously, our flight was delayed. Thankfully, it was only delayed by about an hour. Given my previous experiences flying through Fort Lauderdale and Miami, I had fully expected an eight-hour delay. But we eventually got off the ground and headed home.
It was a great vacation.